Where were you when the world stopped turning...

...that September day.

I can't remember what I was doing Tuesday of last week... but I can remember what I was doing 10 years ago today like none other.
I had just gotten up for School.. or was in the process of it. My mom was already at work and my dad was yelling down the hall for me to get up. I was in 8th grade at Riverview Jr. High. I was 13 years old. I remember groggily waking up and walking down the hall to my parents room, my dad had the news on and one of the twin towers was on fire... he said an airplane had flown into it. My defensive thought.. well it was an accident of course. but then the 2nd plane hit... this was no accident. I remember sitting either on top of next to some suitcases in my parents room watching this all go down. We were supposed to go to New York that night... and had reservations to stay in the World Trade Center Marriott. Needless to say, we never went. and I count my blessings that we didn't leave one day earlier.
As things were unfolding, my dad kept saying "this is al queda.." I had no idea who that was, who they were, nothing. I had never heard of them before. Little did I did the name Al-Queda would be one that I would hear about for the rest of my life.
I went to school, I remember being in my "homeroom" or advisory class.. I was in student government that year, in the class with Trevor Salmon, Tori Grandinetti, ah.. who else? I think Vanessa Hutson, Andee Snow.. we watched the towers in class, everyone was talking about what was going on... no one really knew though. Advisory ended, and we changed classes.. i headed to my art class with Mrs. Morgan. the class room was right next to the auditorium, i remember walking to her class and hearing people say things like "the towers fell.." and things like that. I didn't want to believe them. and me, my know it all self, said to people "those towers can't fall, they are built of pure steel!" but by the time I got to my art class, I was proven wrong. the 1st tower had fallen. after that the principal made all the teachers turn off the TV's.. said it will be too much for all of us. They were right. it was so hard to watch this.. everything felt so out of control.
our 8th grade class had been through a lot in the past couple of weeks. the week prior to that we had buried one of our classmates, Craig Warburton. I didn't know him well, we had History together, for the first week of school.. that Friday he was killed walking home from school. as I said, I didn't know him well, but seeing many of my friends hurting like they were hurt me.
It was a rough start to 8th grade. our lives had changed forever. we will never be the same.
all day long on Sept 11th, all we heard about were more and more threats.. some in Salt Lake we thought.. all of them proved false.
It wasn't until I got home that i heard about the Pentagon and Pennsylvania... but from then on, I was glued to the news.. which i have always been my dad's child and watched the news, but this was never ending. It felt like the news never ended..
It was eerie for the next couple weeks having all of the plans grounded.. My mom works for Delta.. I remember being so worried she was going to get laid off. Thank Heaven she never did. but I remember looking out everyday and never seeing a plane in the sky. it lasted for like a week,  i don't remember exactly how long. But where I grew up, if you stood in my circle and looked west, you could see the flight path the planes took, i used to watch them everyday.. again, I am my dad's child. i love watching planes. but they were absent from the sky in what seemed like forever.
When the planes started flying again, I remember being so scared. Now I have never liked to fly much.. i am positive the plane will just drop out of the sky... but the terror attacks didn't help.. in fact it made it worse. I have flown since.. usually with them help of some type of medicine.. haha :)
But they have not won. the terrorists will never win. we are too strong of a Country.
God Bless America!

Where were you when the world stopped turning, that September day???